July 18, 2012

Buy Your Next iPhone Case Now!

Everything is moving right along on schedule so far in terms of iPhone rumors. We´ve already got a pretty good idea as to what this thing will look like. We´ve more or less “known” for a while now that the next iPhone will feature a 4-inch-ish screen. We´ve seen plenty of leaked parts and components which suggest this new, larger form factor. Later, the Wall Street Journal confirmed what we had long since suspected, saying the new iPhone will measure “at least 4 inches diagonally.”

(Later, other news sources, such as 9to5mac.com, got very precise with their tape measure of speculation and said the screen will only measure 3.999 inches diagonally. Your move, WSJ“¦)

We´ve also seen, in glimmering detail, what appears to be the back cases of the what could be the next iPhone displayed on parts suppliers´ sites and even manhandled like a slab of aluminum meat on video.

If these rumors are true, it looks as if Apple could build these iPhones similarly to how they´ve built the MacBook Pro with Retina Display, meaning all the internal parts are crammed into the aluminum shell, topped off with their new, in-cell Retina Display, altogether making for a sleek, slimmer phone.

Though we won´t really know what the iPhone will look like until that crisp, Autumnal day in the near future, we already more or less know what the next iPhone will look like, despite Tim Cook´s proclamation that Apple will be “doubling down” on secrecy.

(An aside: Wouldn´t it be the best coup in recent tech history if Apple has been leaking all of this information – the parts, the screen size, all of it – to these parts manufacturers to throw us off the scent of the real teardrop shaped iPhone 5 of last year? Oh Tim, you rascal!)

At this point in the iPhone rumor game, we´re used to seeing third-party cases, meeting the needs of those over-anxious users who don´t care what the next iPhone looks like, they just want to wrap it in a cheap, ugly piece of Chinese plastic.

And just like that, TVC-mall.com has delivered their own third-party case, complete with holes for the rumored 19-pin connector.

These cases also imply that the next iPhone will be somewhere in the 3.999 to 4-inch range and flaunt its new slim frame and taller body. Of course, these third-party cases (available now at $61 for 50 units) are nothing more than a physical culmination of all the rumors we´ve been gathering over the past several months. It costs these case makers next to nothing to machine a die and start dumping plastic into them as they crank out thousands of these cases. If all their guesses and supplier contacts are correct, they´ve just scored a jump on the market, making their cases the first to mall kiosks everywhere.

If, on the other hand, Cook and Crew take the stage this fall and release something that looks more like the Galaxy S III (Oh Tim, you Rascal!!) than these third-party cases, they aren´t out much money. I´m no case manufacturer, but I have to wonder if being first to market with plastic cases is enough to warrant the gamble, but apparently it is.

At this rate, we´ll either see some leaked pictures of sushi from the next iPhone in the coming weeks, or someone will find one of these mysterious devices in a bar.